New Again
by GeekyLola
Summary: It's been two weeks since Piper had her surgery. Just as she and Leo feared, she doesn't remember anything from the past month. If fact, she may have lost more of her memory than they previously thought she would. The only familiar faces around her are Hunter and Delaney Shaw. But clinging to the only people she really knows could ruin Leo's chances of winning her heart again.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Hello all! Sorry it took so long for me to get this up, but here it is! I just wanted everyone to know that Piper's tone will seem different, but remember, she told Leo she wouldn't be the same girl he knew if she lost some of her memory. Also, just a heads up, this story will switch POVs sometimes. But it will still mainly follow Piper.

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ: **Alright guys, the best way I can think to do this is to say this is on hiatus. I don't know how long it's going to take me to update again and I have a lot of other obligations pulling me away from this story. So, for now, I'm taking a step back. But, and this is also important, I WILL COMPLETE THIS STORY! I have yet to leave a story unfinished and I will not start now. Just please bear with me for a little while.

* * *

><p><strong>2 Weeks Later<strong>

"Good morning Piper, ready for speech therapy?" Katelyn smiled brightly as she entered my room. Nurse Jackson had already made me comfortable for the day and promised that after speech therapy that hot PT guy, Mike, would come through to exercise my legs and arms.

Katelyn was alright, a bit perky for my taste, like Nurse Brittany who was always trying to make me look on the bright side of things. Unlike Brittany though, Katelyn was like fifty with grey hair and a bit of a grandmotherly feel to her. But, despite my dislike of her overly perky nature, Katelyn got results. I was talking again for the most part. Dr. McAndrew was really impressed because it was faster than most people learned.

"M-morning K-atelyn." Yeah, I did say for the most part. Hard syllables gave me trouble, and m and n…couldn't figure out why though. "How are you?"

"Good, thank you for asking. You sound like you just keep improving. You might be rid of me sooner than you thought." Katelyn smiled.

"Well, you're a g-ood t-eacher." I tried to hold back my frustration.

"Don't get discouraged, Piper. You are doing a really good job." Katelyn soothed my anger. Funny thing was I was really good at talking while I was angry. But Katelyn wanted me to get there while calm as well. "Now, let's start the lesson." Katelyn pulled out her tape recorder and flash cards and our hour long speech therapy began.

Each day I got a little better at speaking, and Katelyn let me know it. But the piano which sat at the back of my room, my piano, made me feel like just talking wasn't enough. In my mind, two weeks ago I was well on my way to my free ride to Julliard. In my mind I was just fine two weeks ago. And yet, I know, because of what my parents, doctors and nurses tell me, that I have been sick for over a month and I have been living in this hospital that long and apparently I had friends here. But I couldn't image myself making a life in this hospital. Not when I'm so determined to leave.

There was his girlfriend, Emma. She had an eating disorder. I didn't know how I felt about her, she was sort of mousy, but she had her moments of outburst. She was also avoiding me for some reason, but I guess it was better that I didn't know why. She seemed nice enough, but she just wasn't my type of person. She was too uptight.

I definitely couldn't imagine being friends with the people I was told I was friends with. That boy Jordi spoke Spanish to me like we were old friends, but I had seen him selling drugs once or twice when my parents came to roll me around on what they called "My daily walk".

Then there was that girl Kara, who seemed like everything I hated in a person. She was rude, selfish and a cheerleader. She seemed like all she cared about was making people fear her. Why would I ever hang out with someone like that? Had I become her lackey at some point? That didn't seem like me either.

There was the guy called Dash, who seemed like maybe I could be friends with. That was, if he wasn't always trying to have sex with someone. Well, someone specific, my friend Laney, who most people knew as Delaney Shaw, the pop star. I couldn't imagine being around someone who was always trying to get in my friends pants.

I remembered when I first learned that Laney was at the same hospital; that we had been at the same hospital the whole time. She was so shocked to see me I figured we hadn't run into each other somehow. Then she explained that she just hadn't expected me to be awake so soon after my surgery.

It was great to know that I had been right about our friendship, that we had survived her raise to fame and were still as close as ever. I was happy when she told me all the things we'd done together.

There really was only one other person at the hospital besides Laney I could talk to, and that was Hunter. I hadn't seen him since we were younger, and I couldn't believe that we'd ended up in the same hospital, and getting surgery on the same day. The serendipitous nature of the situation seemed too much to ignore, at first. Then I realized that Ocean Park was known as one of the best hospitals in all of California, and since we all had pretty serious issues, it actually made sense that we would be sent there.

"Hey, Piper." I looked up as my parents rolled me through the hospital. It was that boy, Leo. He came by to say hi to me at least once a day. I didn't know how I felt about him. He was friends with all the other people I had also, apparently been friends with, and I didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Those people weren't my kind of people, so maybe that also meant he wasn't my type of person. But he was always sweet to me, and my dad told me he was the one who got my piano to the hospital, so I was forcing myself to give him a chance.

"H-hey, Leo." I tried to smile politely at him, but I grimaced a bit at my inability to say even the simplest of sentences.

My parents also greeted Leo warmly. They seemed to be on very good terms with each other. It was weird to think that my parents remembered someone that I didn't. Especially since he and I had been so close.

"You're getting better." He smiled, obviously trying to make me feel better.

"Your hair's g-getting longer." I said, nodding my head towards his. There was this flash of something in his eyes when I said that. He seemed hopeful for a moment.

"So is yours." He pointed to my head. One of the other things I didn't remember was telling Nurse Jackson, who has been taking care of me this whole time, to shave my whole head instead of just a chuck of it. I regret that though, my head is always cold.

"Pipes! Looking good." Laney sauntered over, winking at me.

"H-hey Laney, what's g-oing on?" I smiled back.

"Hey, Delaney." Leo said, but it held none of the warmth it did when he greeted me. It never did, and I couldn't understand why.

"Leo." Laney was cooler in her greeting to him as well, but she was never quite as cold as Leo was to her. It was also one of the reasons I was so unsure as to whether I could be friends with Leo or not. He and Delaney clearly didn't get along, but they both tried hard to hide it from me. "Mind if I steal my bestie away from you?" She smiled.

"Of course not. I'll see you around, Piper." Leo smiled at me again, before walking off. The limp in his step was almost nonexistent now. He would be able to go home soon.

"Laney?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you and Leo so c-c-c…weird around each other?"

"We aren't." She dropped the conversation quickly, and, after asking my parents if she could, Laney took over pushing my chair and rushed me down the hall.

* * *

><p><strong>1 Week Earlier<strong>

"She's lost a little more than just this past month, we can now see that clearly." Dr. McAndrew was explaining to Leo and Mr. and Mrs. Douglas. "Based on what you've told me, it seems like everything from these last few months are all jumbled bits and pieces in her memory. It's up to all of you to fill in the blanks as best and accurately as you can."

"What happened if we get something wrong?" Leo asked.

"Her entire personality could change. Piper is who she is because of everything that has happened up until now. If you start filling in her blank spaces with a different story, she's not the same girl you know anymore, because her experiences were different."

"Thank you, Dr. McAndrew. Come on, let's get back to Piper." Mr. Douglas said, helping his wife up. Leo followed behind silently worrying that he would mess something up and lose Piper.

Unfortunately, when they got back to the room, Piper wasn't alone. Delaney Shaw was in there, and they were talking, well Delaney was doing most of the talking and Piper was smiling and listening.

"What are you doing in here?" Mrs. Douglas asked.

"Mmom," Piper smiled. "L-aney c-c-ame by t-to see mme. D-id you knn-ow she w-as in the ssame os-p-ital." Piper sighed was she finished the sentence. It took a lot of energy out of her to talk, and almost every word was a struggle. It broke Leo's heart.

"Yes, that is great, but your dad and I would like some time with you now. Would you excuse us Delaney?" Mrs. Douglas was flat out cold to Delaney when she said this. She didn't even pretend to still like the girl. Delaney seemed to sense this too because she nodded and left quickly.

Leo followed after her.

"Hey, Delaney, what did you tell Piper?" Leo stopped her from rushing away.

"I didn't tell her anything." Delaney shrugged, trying to act nonchalant.

"That's a lie. She was pissed when she saw you in this hospital not two days ago. I highly doubt she'd be so excited to see you if she remembered what you did to her."

"But she doesn't." Delaney smiled. Something wicked could be seen in the back of that smile, and it worried Leo.

"What did you do?"

"I lied. I told her we were still friends, I didn't tell her what I did."

"How could you do that to her?"

"I needed my friend back!" Delaney snapped. "Piper was the only person who ever cared about me, just because of who I was. She never used me for my talent, and now I'm surrounded by people that only care about me as long as I am talented, and popular. I missed having one real friend."

"So your solution is to not be that friend to her, and instead use her unfortunate circumstances to your advantage and lie to her? You really are a terrible friend. If you really cared about her you'd tell her the truth and ask for her forgiveness. Tell her everything you just told me."

"And risk her still hating me? I don't think so. This is the best way I have to get her back."

"Well, if you won't tell her, I will." Leo turned to head back to Piper's room.

"Go ahead, but just remember this, she doesn't even know you." Leo froze. "That's right, you think about that. She knows me, she trusts me, and I'm her friend. You're just some random guy, who is telling her that her best friend is a bad person. Who do you think she'll believe?" Leo turned back to Delaney then. "Exactly, but if you let me have this, I can help you too."

"What do you mean?"

"If you try to tell her the truth, I will poison her against you. But, if you let me keep her as a friend, I'll put in a good word for you, tell her nice things about you. Then, maybe you can win her back. But I can also tell you this, if you don't take my help, she'll never love you again. She already told me she doesn't think she could've been friends with those kids you guys used to hang out with."

"You're lying."

"Am I really? If she hadn't gotten to know you all over that last month, do you think she would have just jumped into a friendship with you? If she had friends back home, friends like me; do you think she would have? She doesn't remember anything that you do. All she has to go on is what she sees now, and I have to tell you, you guys haven't been putting your best feet forward." Delaney smirked confidently.

Doubt started to fill Leo's mind. Could he honestly risk losing Piper to Delaney Shaw? "Fine, I won't tell her the truth, but if you do one thing to hurt her, I will. I don't care if it means I could lose her too."

"You really are a smart guy, Leo. I can kind of see why Pipes fell for you."

"She hates that nickname."

"Not anymore." Delaney sang as she started towards her room once more.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **My apologies to all you lovely followers and favoriters for the long wait! Once the show went off I sort of lost my way…but its back, and I'm back and I have a plan! I will say the medical of this chapter is very most likely not sound, so if it seems unrealistic, I apologize. Feel free to let me know if you have suggestions. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

><p>The brain is an amazing thing, when it knows there are things it might forget, or lose the other parts start to pick up the slack and hold on to the bits of you you'd thought you lost.<p>

As another week passed, I started talking more smoothly. As that began to happen, there was this feeling, like an itch, in my brain, something I couldn't scratch but it was driving me crazy because I knew if I could just figure out what it was the itch would leave. The morning the speech centers of my brain clicked, that was the moment the itch started.

I woke up that morning feeling like something had changed in the night, like my brain had been hard at work rewiring things hoping to be done by the time I awoke. When Nurse Brittany came in to greet me I just knew today would be different. "Good morning Nurse Brittany."

My heart started pounding against my rib cage. For three weeks I had been struggling to get a simple sentence out, and today, this morning it flowed like it used to. It was effortless for the first time in three weeks and we were both shocked to hear it.

Brittany stopped what she was doing and stared at me, and I stared right back. Our faces had matching looks of surprised happiness, mouths slightly opened but we were clearly smiling. "Good morning, Piper?" She was so shocked it came out as a question instead of a statement.

"Good morning, Brittany." I said again, the smile on my face growing larger by the second. It hadn't been a fluke or just a stroke of luck. Something had finally clicked, something was finally working right.

"Oh my God." Brittany gasped, her own smile growing as well. "I have to get Nurse Jackson." She said excitedly, rushed back out of the room. I could hear her calling out to Jackson as she ran. The muffled sound of an annoyed Nurse Jackson could be heard from my room, until Brittany began speaking again, presumably telling her what had just happened. Then two pairs of feet could be heard rushing back towards me.

Jackson and Brittany skidded into the room, catching the attention of Hunter, Kara and Dash as they went. The three followed behind trying to find out if something was wrong without intruding. It was times like that where I could see how I might've actually been friends with Dash and Kara. Their blatant worry for me, even though I'd made no attempt to rekindle the friendship I'd forgotten we'd ever had, was heartwarming.

"Good morning, Piper. Brittany tells me you have some exciting news to share." Jackson raised an eyebrow.

"I guess you could call it exciting. I mean it's no big deal, I can just talk now!" My attempt to keep cool, quickly fell away as I started laughing and tearing up hearing myself speak smoothly and clearly for the first time in weeks.

"AH!" Jackson threw her hands up excitedly and came over to hug me. "I knew you could do it. Did I tell you?" She smiled at me.

"Welcome back Piper!" Hunter smirked.

"I never thought I'd actually miss your voice." Kara joked, and for the first time since I'd woken up, I finally saw what I must've seen in her the first time around, what Hunter must've seen in her since they were dating and he clearly loved her.

"Man, I gotta tell Leo, he's gonna be so excited to talk to you." Dash said. "Congrats, Piper. It's good to hear you sound like your old self again." Dash waved and then rushed off to find his best friend.

That's how the itching began. Dash rushed off and Kara finally showed me why we had once been friends, and as I sat there completely unable to stop smiling, the itch suddenly began in the back on my mind. It was like something was trying to get out, be noticed, and be heard.

"Well, you know what that means right?" Jackson eyed me happily. Happy was a weird look on her, but I liked it. It meant she cared about me.

"What does it mean?"

"Now the real hard part begins. You'll start PT tomorrow to get the rest of you back in working order. I'll set it up in the morning because you'll need your rest afterwards." Jackson said walking out; leaving Brittany to finish what she had originally came into the room to do.

After Brittany finished checking me and exercising my legs, and dressing me because I couldn't dress myself, she placed me in my wheelchair and let Hunter take me out around the hospital.

"Hey, Hunter?" I asked as we walked…or he walked and I rolled, around our floor.

"Yep?"

"What do you seen in Kara?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"An honest on." I state simply, think had I been able to I would have shrugged. "Seriously, people told me we used to be friends, but she's rude, and confusing. Sometimes I can almost see how we could've been friends, but other times I think I would never have put up with her."

"You were friends, and she has been that rude and confusing as long as both of us have known her. But think on those moments where you think you guys could've been friends. Those are the moments that make me love her. Those are the moments that you saw and made you want to be her friend. She's not all bad and you know it. As a matter of fact, I think that's exactly why you're asking about her. I think you might remember, but you're too stubborn to admit you could've been wrong about her." Hunter smirked, trying to get inside my head, as he usually did.

"I don't remember, actually." The itch in the back of my mind grew stronger. I scrunched my nose at it. "But, today I did feel like I saw something that made me see how I could've been friends with her, at least some of the time."

"I say go with that instinct." Hunter smiled.

"You just want me to like her so you don't feel weird about having a friend not like your girlfriend." I laughed.

"I don't care that you don't like her. I just want you to remember what you've forgotten." Hunter was suddenly serious.

"Thanks Hunter."

* * *

><p>In stark contrast to the morning's events, when I talked to Laney for the first time, with the incessant itch growing more obnoxious with each passing second, she simply sighed and said, "Finally! Do you know how annoying your stuttering was getting?" She laughed.<p>

I just this knot in the pit of my stomach, something of a mix between disappointment and met expectations. "Thanks, Lane." I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Oh, don't get all sensitive." She brushed off my obvious annoyance and I couldn't help but wonder how she had changed so much.

When she'd first found me after the surgery she'd told me we were still best friends. She'd said nothing between us had changed and we still hung out all the time. But the memory of who she was in my mind was so different from the girl that stood in front of me. For some reason I couldn't understand how the girl in front of me could still be my best friend. There was always this feeling like I was missing something with her and I couldn't understand what.

"Laney, I'm feeling tired. Do you think you could wheel me back to my room?"

"Well, I can't right now, but let me get that angry nurse." Delaney left the room and returned with Nurse Jackson.

"Come on Piper; let's get you back to bed." Nurse Jackson smiled.

I smiled tightly, unable to shake the confused feeling in both my head and my heart. As we started down the hall, we ran into Leo. He was smiling brightly as he saw us.

"Hey, Piper!"

"Hey Leo." I tried to sound happy, but I couldn't bring myself to regain my previous excitement.

"So Dash was telling the truth? You're talking again. That's great!"

"Thanks." I felt the blush creep into my cheeks.

"Hey, Jackson, mind if I take over from here?" Leo asked.

"Well, I was just going to take Piper to lie down; she said she was tired…"

"I'm alright." I piped up.

"Alright, then." Nurse Jackson released me into Leo's care and walked off to see to somebody else.

"Are you really tired? I can take you to your room." Leo offered.

"No…I just didn't want to hang out with Delaney anymore." I answer honestly, wondering all the while why.

"Trouble in paradise?" Leo jokes.

"Why do you make it sound like we're dating?" I scrunch my nose even though he can't see it. "I don't know. There's like this itch in the back of my head…have you ever gotten that? It feels like I've forgotten something and my brain is trying to help me remember what it is but…I don't know I just can't."

"Have you tried focusing on it? I hear that helps sometimes."

"I just want it to go away." I grumble.

"Well, if your brain is trying to make you remember I don't think it's going to go away."

"So what? I should just sit around meditating on it?" I joked.

"Maybe…but I don't know if that will work. But it's gotta be better than trying to ignore it and driving yourself crazy right?"

I didn't answer. I knew he was probably right, but I wasn't sure I wanted to remember what I'd lost thanks to that tumor. I had obviously, by the looks of my hair, resigned myself to the loss. Perhaps I was glad not to remember it.

As I thought about my hair I remembered how cold my head was and sighed, wishing I could at least reach a hand up to try to protect it from the chilly hospital air.

"What's wrong?"

I chuckled, embarrassed at my predicament, but also realizing that he probably understood quite well how a cold head felt.

"My head is cold." I admit. "I sort of regret telling them to cut all my hair off. I guess I didn't think about how cold my head would be afterwards, or that I wouldn't be able to move my arms so I wouldn't be able to cover it or anything."

"I think I might have something to help." Leo said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. He began pushing me back the way we'd come, towards his room. When we got there Jordi was on his bed reading some magazine.

"Hey, Piper." He smiled at me as we entered.

"Hi Jordi."

"Whoa, you can talk again! That's awesome." He laughed.

"Yeah, it just happened this morning." My mood was steadily beginning to perk up again, but getting the reactions I had hoped to get from Delaney from Leo and Jordi instead still bothered me in the pit of my stomach. I kept remembering how everyone had told me that these were my friends. I kept remembering how many times I'd heard from people around the hospital that these were the people I spent all my time with and it wasn't until this very moment that it occurred to me that not once had any of those people mentioned Delaney, and she had hardly mention any of these guys.

"Here you go." Leo brought my attention back to him. In his hand was a grey beanie. "I wore this around a lot when my head was completely bald. But since my hair started growing back I don't really need it." He smiled as he walked back towards me and placed the beanie on my head. Instantly my head felt warmer and I sighed. "I think it looks better on you anyway." Leo smiled, his face inches from my own as he examined my new look.

As we sat there, I had the sudden feeling of déjà-vu. I could almost tell that we had been there before, maybe not with me in a wheelchair, and maybe not with this grey beanie on my head, but the look in his eyes as he stood so close to me tugged at my brain desperately, begging me to remember while this all felt so familiar. The tugging became so desperate that my head started to hurt.

"I think I'm getting a headache." I whispered.

"I'll take you back to your room." Leo smiled kindly but in his eyes there was sadness.

"Bye Jordi." I said, without even thinking about it. It was the first time I bothered to talk to him first, and even that felt more right than any of the time I'd spent with Delaney.


End file.
